The Very Best Posts On Fstoppers From 2011

by Kenn Tam January 5, 2012 3 Comments

(JANUARY) Street Photographer’s Work Discovered A Few Days After Her Death
Vivian Maier’s street photography was recently “discovered” just a few days after she died at the age of 83. The Chicago nanny took over 100,000 photographs and many say she may rank among the top street photographers of the 20th century.

(JANUARY) NYC – Mindrelic Timelapse
Today is our final day in NYC and we are currently in the studio shooting the next Fstoppers Original on Sam Yocum. I have just a second as the model gets makeup ready for the second look. I just stumbled upon this fantastic NYC timelapse by Josh Owens.

(FEBRUARY) Fstoppers Original: The Wakeboard Studio Shoot
...I decided I wanted a way to shoot a rider flying through the air with interesting, studio quality lighting and this is what I came up with.

(FEBRUARY) How To Build A Full Studio At A Music Festival
If you’ve ever attended a crazy big music or art festival then the thought has probably crossed your mind, “I should probably photograph these interesting characters while I’m here!” While attending the annual free expression festival Burning Man in Nevada, photographer Eric Schwabel decided to build a portable photo studio to capture dramatic portraits of everyone in attendance...

(MARCH) Fstoppers Original: The Stolen Scream
What if you took a set of images that became so popular that it was used hundreds of times all around the world by hundreds of artists, businesses, websites, and publications? As photographers, it’s what we all dream about but what if you were never paid for your work? What if you weren’t even given credit? What if your images were stolen for years and you never had any idea? This is Noam Galai’s story.

(MARCH) No, These Are Not Photos Of Ghosts or UFOs
When Denis Smith found himself faced with a dark depression in his life, he found motivation and purpose through his newly found photography hobby. After moving to South Australia, Denis picked up a camera and began to explore the serendipitous world of night photography.

(APRIL) F*ck You; Pay Me! A Guide To Contracts For The Creative Professional
Have you ever had a client dismiss a project after you have already put in hours of work? What are you supposed to do when a client brings in a second professional to also work on your project? What can you do if a client says your work isn’t really what they were looking for after you have already delivered the final project?

(APRIL) A New iPhone Fashion Shoot To Silence The Haters
I released The iPhone Fashion Shoot back in July of 2010 thinking that it would be a fun way to prove a simple point (that people can create compelling images with any camera). I never thought 1, that the video would become so huge and 2, that 50% of everyone who saw it would totally miss the point...

(MAY) The Battle At F-Stop Ridge
I don’t think we have ever had a video submitted to us more than the one below. The Camera Store created a great promo video in which a battle takes place with cameras instead of guns.

(MAY) How A Professional Photographer Should Document A Vacation
...What if we spent a little more time on our next vacation and shot pictures and stills with a particular project in mind? That is what this couple did and now they have a tight 4 minute video that is fun for anyone to watch.

(JUNE) What Photographers Do To Entertain Themselves In An Airport
Okay this video has no real educational value at all but I really enjoyed it. Larry Chen and Joe Ayala, two drifting photographers and videographers for Tandem of Die, recently were stuck overnight at the Dallas Fort-Worth Airport. Instead of trying to sleep on the fluorescent soaked vinyl benches, they decided to create a fun video of them playing around the empty airport while security was apparently asleep...

(JUNE) Art or Pornography? The Life and Work of Sally Mann
After almost a year of work we have finally finished Peter Hurley: The Art Behind The Headshot. We created this to be a double DVD tutorial and we may eventually still make a physical copy but for now we have decided to begin with a digital download. I would like to thank each one of you that supported us by pre-ordering this video...

(JULY) Light Painting with 1,871 Slices of a Corpse
Joseph Paul Jernigan was a Texas murderer who was executed by lethal injection. His body was then sliced into 1,871, 1mm cross sections, digitized and has now been used to create eerily stunning photographs.

(JULY) The Portrait Photographer’s Rube Goldberg
...I can’t imagine how long this Rube Goldberg setup took to build and get working 100% but I know I’m still not sure how several of the segments worked (like Mario and the instant print)...

(AUGUST) Two Free Books on Street Photography
Photographer Thomas Leuthard just published a second free book about street photography called “Collecting Souls… What Street Photography means to me”. That and “Going Candid… An unorthodox approach to Street Photography” can be downloaded as PDF documents...

(AUGUST) Annie Leibovitz’s Lighting, From the Eyes of a Photo Assistant
Assistants, aka “voice activated light stands”, can be a wealth of knowledge and experience if you are fortunate enough to have access to one that’s been around. It’s not entirely unheard of, to meet an assistant that knows their lighting better than the photographer they are working for. If only one of them would create a blog about their behind the scenes exploits… wait a minute. What do we have here?

(SEPTEMBER) How To Tether Your Camera To An Ipad Without Jailbreaking
Last year I released a video explaining how to wirelessly tether your camera to an iPad by jailbreaking the iPad...

(SEPTEMBER) Fake Nikon Gear Alert! D7000 MB-D11 Knockoff
A few months ago I purchased a Nikon D7000 and MB-D11 battery grip from Amazon.com. The order was fulfilled by ANATOLIAN BOOKSTORE, INC and two days ago I figured out that this grip is actually a fake. Check out the full post...

(OCTOBER) Light Painting Just Keeps Getting Better and Better
Every time I think light painting is a fad that will soon reach, “seen it all before” status, some one comes along and changes my mind. Enter Dennis Calvert. If you want to see some spectacular examples of this exploding art form, check out some of Dennis’s work.

(OCTOBER) This Is The Best Timelapse Video You Will Ever See… This Month
I just ran across across Dustin Farrell’s newest timelapse and I know I say this a lot but I really think THIS is my favorite so far. Quality timelapse videos keep coming out and raising the bar each time but this is a big leap in my opinion. Obviously these shots have been enhanced in post and I would LOVE to know how he did it...

(NOVEMBER) [Video] An Open Letter To Canon, Stop The Lies!
...Apparently to use a camera properly you need to have talent and original ideas but Canon has failed to put either in the box with any of their cameras.

(NOVEMBER) [Video] A Creative, Inspirational Short by Tom Jenkins
Using Google Street View, stop motion animation, a 5D Mark II, everyday objects as props, great lighting and the power of the creative mind, director Tom Jenkins made what maybe my favorite short of the year, Address Is Approximate.

(DECEMBER) [Video] Judge Brown Tears Cheap Wedding Photog a New One
...when I saw this video of Judge Joe Brown ripping this ~~professional~~ wedding photographer a new one I couldn’t help but chuckle at this ridiculous exchange. I apologize ahead of time for all the stupid in this video...

(DECEMBER) [Pics] The 45 Most Powerful Images Of 2011
“The 45 Most Powerful Images Of 2011″, according to BuzzFeed. How many of these moments do you recognize? Which one do you find most compelling? And do you think BuzzFeed missed anything? Leave your anwsers in the comments below.

Peter Hurley’s The Art Behind The Headshot
After almost a year of work we have finally finished Peter Hurley: The Art Behind The Headshot. We created this to be a double DVD tutorial and we may eventually still make a physical copy but for now we have decided to begin with a digital download. I would like to thank each one of you that supported us by pre-ordering this video...

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